The 2018 WSA, EIG Teacher Survey

By David Westley

Updated:

10th Aug 2022

There's a great quote from John Nolan, head of Sharjah English School, in our Influencer Awards, out this week. Teaching, he says, is too important to do badly.

UAE education regulators face a tougher task than almost any other country to ensure standards are met. Multiple curricula, multiple nationalities, multiple teaching qualifications, mean maintaining or even understanding baseline standards is not easy. The introduction of new teacher licensing requirements, introduced this year, is an attempt to meet this challenge head on.

So far the industry has met its introduction with relatively open arms, although all schools recognise it is another potential spanner in recruitment, already under pressure in the UAE in the face of a growing number of international schools around the world. Good quality, internationally minded, qualified teachers are in demand - and as a corollary harder to get.

While under normal circumstances salaries would rise with increasing scarcity, in the UAE the dramatic growth in the number of new schools is putting pressure on school leaders to play closer attention to costs - of which staffing is usually the number one line item. Just holding onto staff requires leaders to be innovative.

But it can be done, and again John Nolan's Sharjah English School is a model to follow. It is keeping its teachers on average for a decade, against a Sharjah mean of less than two years. How is it doing it...? Life is not as simple as a single answer, but you'll find it in the blend of inspirational leadership, a strong community, CPD, fair salaries...

If you are a teacher in the UAE, this is your chance to let us know how well you think the UAE is doing. Note, answers are anonymised, and we do not attribute results to specific schools. Final results will be published on WhichSchoolAdvisor.com and the Education IntelligenceGroup.com web sites, and insights fed back to schools and the education regulators.